NY woman sent to prison for gift-cards scheme that stole $464,000 from Lowe's

BALTIMORE -- A Westchester Couny woman was sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison for defrauding a home improvement company through fraudulent gift cards.

Lucerte "Lisa" Abellard, 35, of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., was also ordered to pay more than $410,000 in restitution during sentencing in federal court in Baltimore.

According to her plea agreement, Abellard called employees at Lowe's stores around the country pretending to be from the IT department. Prosecutors said Abellard would claim there were problems with a register, ask an employee to run diagnostics and do a test transaction.

The test transaction would require putting a credit of about $3,500 on Lowe's gift cards that Abellard held, officials said.